Charlie Warzel, writing for BuzzFeed, notes the paradox of online comments. They're vilified in many quarters yet have never been more popular. He explores the constant dilemma for online sites in providing space for and moderating comments. No matter that some sites have minimized or even stricken them, they are here to stay, he concludes.

Jaron Lanier, in a commentary piece for the New York Post, says people should be compensated by the likes of Twitter and Facebook for providing content. Lanier, a Microsoft employee and author of a new book, believes social media is killing the middle class because rewards of the technology are only deposited with a few. He says it's time to take the future back.

Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of The New York Times, looks back on the Jayson Blair fabrication episodes at the paper that came to light 10 years ago. She examines the effort to repair the shaken credibility and the steps taken to avoid a recurrence. She concludes the Times has put in place several measures to verify, and the Internet context provides ongoing scrutiny from the audience. But she and editors in the piece note that nothing can guarantee there won't be another event.

Today is World Press Freedom Day, and the Editors Weblog notes how the recent passage of the South African secrecy bill poses a new threat to expression by journalists of uncomfortable ideas. Critics express concern that journalists and whistleblowers will not be protected when they expose corruption.

Our perceptions of the strength and reach of particular social media might not be accurate. BuzzFeed has assembled the official data to demonstrate what people are actually using. For instance, SnapChat is more popular than Instagram, Yahoo Mail is more popular than Twitter, and MySpace is about as popular as Spotify.

Mathew Ingram, writing for GigaOm, takes on the idea that Twitter should have some sort of correction mechanism. The idea surfaces every time there is a large, complex event that spurs a fair amount of bad information. Ingram says correcting would ruin the vibe of Twitter, which is an iterative stream of real-time content. Much as he regrets making an errant Tweet, he thinks the wider crowd will eventually help fix the mistake.

Peter Verweij, writing for Memeburn, tracks the development of data-driven journalism and its importance in modern story-telling. He notes the emergence of visualized data, programmable pages, maps and geographic information systems. While typical editors may lack the skills, there appears to be a need for developers in newsrooms to master the new opportunities.

All Americans need to do is spend a few more minutes online away from work and their habit will eclipse TV viewing at home. Media Life reports that new data from the Temkin Group indicates Americans watch 3.9 hours of TV and spend 3.8 hours online outside of work each day. The January survey of 10,000 is quite different than results of only two years ago, when TV viewing was still double that of surfing.

The high-stakes fight over the right of Aereo to stream television signals has taken a turn that suggests this will be a battle of media giants. Bloomberg reports that News Corp. has said it will take its Fox network off over-the-air transmission and move it to a cable-only signal if Aereo is not prohibited from taking the Fox signal free and reselling it online.

Felix Salmon of Reuters explores the disruptive potential of native advertising. He notes the effort by BuzzFeed in the field of sponsored content, how it wants to disrupt banner advertising, and what that might mean for online media. Salmon believes the effort is significant to reach a relatively small audience and that its potential is a long way off because it won't easily reach scale.

In the first few days upon its release, Google's entry into social media has been taking it in the chin. Buzz has been lambasted mainly for its privacy follies --- it pretty much corrals your friends the second you're inside the tent --- but critics like Jeff Jarvis also cite its basic functionality.

Late Saturday Google made some key modifications and pleas for tolerance. Its official Gmail blog says users now will merely have a suggested list of followers; those who tripped into a big network will get a second chance to build a leaner one.

Picasa and Google Reader albums won't automatically be mixed in with Buzz, and you'll be able to hide Buzz or never use it because a tab is being introduced in Gmail.

"We quickly realized that we didn't get everything quite right. We're very sorry for the concern we've caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We'll continue to do so," author Todd Jackson writes